


Romance Twilight

by PenguinsDemise



Category: Exalted (Roleplaying Game), One Piece
Genre: Canon Expansion, Canon-Typical Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:47:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26061391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenguinsDemise/pseuds/PenguinsDemise
Summary: Jae is captured by slavers, and escapes when she is granted a Solar Exaltation. Now armed with great power, she sets sail to clean up the injustice of the world.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2





	Romance Twilight

Aelia Jae watched the sparrows as men bartered for her life. There must have been a hole in the roof of the building she was being held in, and the birds had taken advantage of the shelter to set up nests throughout the rafters.

“The girl might fetch something on the Grand Line, but the best I can offer for the other two is to offload them over at Wright Island, the Mondril’s always need new workers.” The man was tall and clear-cut, and he was wearing a heavy coat with a face-concealing hood. “Say, 100,000 belly for the three of them?”

Jae tuned out the men as she lay back and continued to watch the birds. The cracks they were flying through looked awfully weathered...The men wrapped up their haggling and shook hands, walking out of the building. “Right, I’ll grab your money and then be back to take this lot off your hands,” said the man in the hood as the door closed. Jae waited a moment and then stood up.

“Whatcha doing, girlie?” said the man in the cell next to Jae’s, his voice rough.

Jae didn’t respond. She reached up to the rafters, glad for the confined quarters of her cell for the first time in the three days she had been confined, and clambered up onto one, knocking down some nests and disturbing the birds. Examining the walls, Jae saw that her hunch was right. The building was old, and years of weather and poor maintenance had rotted the boards through in just this spot. A couple of solid kicks cleared a hole large enough for Jae to squeeze through.

“Hey, hey! What about me?” shouted the man, but Jae ignored him and fell from the hole with a thump. Getting up and running into the forest surrounding the decrepit jail, she tried to quiet her conscience. The slavers were twice her size and the other cells were much more secure than hers had been. There was nothing she could do. _Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Jae_. She continued running for a few minutes. 

_Those other prisoners will be sold as slaves if you don’t go back to help. They don’t deserve that_ , whispered her conscience.

“I don’t deserve it either,” muttered Jae, not slowing down. “Not like I could have helped them, anyway.”

_Not like you tried._

Jae slowed, then stopped, squeezing her eyes shut. “Fuck!” She turned, and started back towards the building she’d been imprisoned in.

Klein Joe lay back down as the girl’s footsteps quickly faded into nothing. He’d been mad that she hadn’t even tried to help him or the poor sod asleep in the next cell over, but had quickly come to the conclusion that she had been lucky to get herself out, let alone helping others. How she had even noticed those rotten boards in this gloom Joe had no idea, but a quick look around had shown that his cell was in much better shape. _Well, at least one of us has a chance of getting out of this_ , he thought.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Joe sat up, expecting to see the slaver. Instead, the girl who had _just escaped the place_ walked into the room, glancing around cautiously. “What are you doing here, that arsehole could be back any minute,” Joe hissed.

_What am I doing, that arsehole could be back any minute,_ thought Jae as she crept back into the building she had so recently escaped, ignoring the inmate’s comments as she looked around for something to use to get him and the other prisoner out. There didn’t seem to be any keys around, but there was a bunch of junk lying around… Jae picked up an iron bar and weighed it thoughtfully, then stepped over to the prisoner who was watching her.

“This shack isn’t very well put together, I think I might be able to lever off some boards with this and get you out,” said Jae quietly.

“Look girlie.” Jae bristled slightly at this. She was 26 years old, damn it! “I appreciate you coming back for us, believe me, but you gotta get yourself outta here!”

“I tried that, my conscience shouted at me until I turned around. Just, stay put until I get you-” Jae cut off as the door opened and the slaver walked in, pausing as he noticed that one of his new acquisitions was decidedly _not_ in the cell where she belonged.

“Ok girl,” said the slaver, casually pulling a flintlock pistol from his belt and gesturing with it. “Back in the cell.”

Jae turned slowly. The slaver was standing awfully casually… “Ok, ok,” said Jae, raising her left hand while keeping the iron bar concealed from the slaver in her right. The slaver gestured again and, while the gun was pointed off to the side, Jae struck out with the bar, catching him in the wrist. The slaver cursed and dropped his pistol. “Come here, bitch,” he growled, grabbing Jae’s arm and tossing her to the ground. “I need you unharmed for sale, but bruises will heal,” he said as he drove his foot into Jae’s side. Jae cried out and rolled away from the kick, then froze as her hand fell on the discarded pistol.

“Hey, stop that you bastard, she’s no threat to you!” shouted the prisoner. Remarkably, the other prisoner was still sleeping.

“You shut up if you know what’s good for you!” shouted the slaver. “You, I don’t need in good condition.” He kicked out at Jae again.

 _I will not go back into that cell_ thought Jae. _Either I die or he does._

Jae felt her conviction ignite a blaze inside her. She closed her hand around the pistol. She had never held one before, but it seemed to fit her hand perfectly, as if it had lived there her entire life. The slaver drew back his foot to kick one more time, and Jae _moved_. She flowed around his kick like water, rising up next to the slaver, his face lit by a golden radiance.

“I do not belong to you!” she shouted, jamming the pistol under his chin and pulling the trigger. “People are not things you can buy and sell!”

“Holy shit, girlie, where’d you learn to move like that? And why are you glowing?” asked the prisoner, looking awed.

Jae whirled to face him. “My name is Aelia Jae, not girlie! And I have no idea why I’m glowing!” Jae looked at her hands, which were rimmed with golden fire that faded through orange and red to the deep purple of the late dusk sky. “Just, let me find the keys.” Turning back to the dead slaver, Jae noticed the second prisoner staring at her with wide eyes. Apparently, he wasn’t quite so heavy a sleeper as to sleep through a gunshot. Riffling through the dead man’s pockets, Jae found a ring of keys and quickly unlocked the two cells. The prisoner who kept calling her “girlie” gave a whoop and pulled Jae into a bear hug, giving no mind to the burning light still emanating from her body.

“The name’s Joe, and you have my thanks! Thought we were in a right pickle ‘til you came back,” said Joe, exuberantly.

“I’m Oscar,” called the second prisoner, “and we have a problem.” He was crouched over the dead slaver, having just pushed back the hood to reveal the body’s face. 

Jae pushed Joe off and walked over to join Oscar. She fought down the urge to look away from the pool of blood. _I did this, and I will not turn away_ , she thought to herself, resolutely. She noticed that Oscar seemed to have no qualms about getting blood on his shoes.

“This is Kidemo Alfred, Marine commander for the base near here,” said Oscar. “I’d heard rumours of him taking bribes to look the other way, but never knew he was in this deep. We need to leave, if his cronies find us they _will_ kill us to keep this quiet.”

“We can hide out in the forest ‘til glowbug here calms down and then, what? Steal a boat to get off the island?” said Joe.

“My name is- you know what, nevermind. I have a boat, or at least I did three days ago. I was visiting from Winefo Island to get some wire, but I must have walked down the wrong street because next thing I knew I was in a cell,” said Jae, as Oscar peered through the door and then waved them on when he saw nobody around. “If we can get to it, I can get us off the island.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first ever fanfic (and first ever real piece of writing, other than stuff I did in school). It'll probably be a while until any updates happen, as I need to actually figure out where this is going, but I wanted to put the first chapter up just to be able to say that I have.


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